Anyone looking at the score sheet might be fooled into thinking that AHB is a contrary sort of chap who would go out of his way to avoid being seen to follow the heard. However, it should perhaps be explained that AHB initially believed that CPR1's bottle was corked and therefore excluded it from his voting. Later in the evening AHB admitted he was wrong, but the group decided that retrospectively changing the result would also be wrong. We did not debate whether or not the same should be true of Brexit.

Looks like a nice evening was had, wish i could have been there. The guesses for Croft 1960 stood out as wildly inaccurate, which is not in line with the abilities of you lot normally. Was it really that youthful, and if so, how certain are you that the wine was what it claimed to be? I've only had Cr '60 once so can't profess any expertise on that wine, or any other port for that matter, but my recollection is more of a fairly soft, delicate and very mature wine.

Would be interesting to hear what it was about it that made everyone think 1980s.

I bought the Cr60 from Seckford Wines this year. This one started leaking when it was removed from the rack prior to shipping so was collected by CPR1 rather than going in the post. I did not see this particular bottle but did see the other two and they looked perfectly genuine. I was very youthful, but not in a way that caused anyone to question what it was on the evening. I suspect it is a bottle from a very cold cellar that has retained its youthful characteristics beyond its years.

PopulusTremula wrote:The guesses for Croft 1960 stood out as wildly inaccurate, which is not in line with the abilities of you lot normally.

Really? Have you been to our tastings?

You generally have a pretty high hit rate as a group if not consistently as individuals. Compared to my own inability to tell chalk from cheese and how everyone seem to have guessed 1980s, yes - I was rather surprised. Derek's suggestion of cold storage would make sense.

PopulusTremula wrote:You generally have a pretty high hit rate as a group if not consistently as individuals.

Are you saying that, if there are enough guesses, usually one throw lands near the target?

Sensing a trap along the lines of statistics, whether it is real or not, I am trying to say that together a handful of TPF individuals usually achieve results better than those which would be obtained from a random process.

I bought a couple of bottles of this at a sale at Christopher Piper Wines, I had no great hope for it as these were the days when the 1960 was considered gone over and never coming back. It was remarkable how young and dark it was, and how unlike any other Croft vintages the flavour was. So I do not think regulars are losing their touch, rather they have honestly reported on a bit of an outlier. I cannot speak for the provenance of the bottles I had other than they were on a table in a sunny widow for a while, as I had to walk past them for a week before I gave in and bought them.

LGTrotter wrote:I bought a couple of bottles of this at a sale at Christopher Piper Wines, I had no great hope for it as these were the days when the 1960 was considered gone over and never coming back. It was remarkable how young and dark it was, and how unlike any other Croft vintages the flavour was. So I do not think regulars are losing their touch, rather they have honestly reported on a bit of an outlier. I cannot speak for the provenance of the bottles I had other than they were on a table in a sunny widow for a while, as I had to walk past them for a week before I gave in and bought them.

A great evening with some lovely Ports and the D70 a deserved WOTN and particularly sumptuous. I ended up with nil points (being one of those caught by the Cr60 conundrum) albeit correctly agreeing the 1st and 2nd in the pecking order. Tom's FG68 was also a great drop of juice and FG (especially from the 60s) continues to go up in my estimation and my mouth is salivating at seeing that earlier vertical from 2011!

Special mention for the food at the B&F-which although generally good, was the best I've had there.